A Bunch of Men Are Mad About an All-Women Screening of 'Wonder Woman'

To celebrate the forthcoming release of Wonder Woman—the first superhero movie in years to feature a female lead—the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater in Austin, Texas, announced plans to offer a women-only screening of the film early next month. Naturally, some men had feelings about it.

On Wednesday the Drafthouse announced the special June 6 screening—which, it should be noted, sold out immediately and resulted in the venue offering a second showing—and made clear that this event was meant to honor the "most iconic superheroine in comic book history" and all those who were part of the audience and the crew at the theater.

"Apologies, gentlemen, but we’re embracing our girl power and saying 'No Guys Allowed' for one special night at the Alamo Ritz," read a post tied to the event's announcement. "And when we say 'Women (and People Who Identify As Women) Only,' we mean it. Everyone working at this screening—venue staff, projectionist, and culinary team—will be female."

And making an already great event all the more significant is how monumental it is that a woman is finally leading a superhero movie. As Gizmodo notes, about 130 superhero and comic book movies featuring solo protagonists have been filmed since 1920. And between 2008 and now, over 30 movies in this genre have been made alone. Just how many women have been the stars of said films? Eight. Yes, just eight over nearly a century of comic book films.

So what happened when women finally get a chance to come together to watch Gal Gadot bring Wonder Woman to the big screen? A bunch of men were furious and took to social media to express their frustration.

Numerous Facebook users posted on the Drafthouse's official page, questioning why they weren't offering men-only screenings for male-driven films. [One man decried the screening, posting, "Because nothing says 'equality' quite like some good ol fashioned segregation." Wrote a different fellow, "Sexist Aholes! Women always complain about equal rights and now you make a movie showing just for women? Dang hypocrites!"

Plenty of other commenters applauded the theater for the screening and chided the angry parties for being too sensitive. As the Alamo Drafthouse said to one commenter, they meant no offense: "Very sorry if you feel excluded. We thought it might be kinda fun—for one screening—to celebrate a character who's meant a great deal to women for close to eight decades. Again, truly, truly, truly, truly sorry that we've offended you."

It's really not that surprising that a bunch of men would get so upset about this on Facebook: After all, there are plenty of sexist knuckleheads with fragile egos populating the Internet. But maybe all the men who were so enraged by the Drafthouse's decision should use their Wonder Woman–free window of time on June 6 to think about how grossly underrepresented women have been in film, especially superhero movies (case in point: There have been three different Spider-Man franchises in the past 15 years alone). Or they could, you know, go see it at one of the thousands of other movie theaters screening the film and not whine about sexism when women are just trying to hang out together and watch a movie that finally features an iconic female lead.